


An Icy Situation

by CheshireChett



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:51:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23345716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CheshireChett/pseuds/CheshireChett
Summary: Varian finds himself at the mercy of a cold man.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 29





	An Icy Situation

Varian’s heart pounded as he ran, dodging and pushing away low hanging branches. He gripped the mineral in his hand, and it burned further into his glove. He paid no mind. It’s not as bad as what could come if he was caught. Voices shouted behind him, sounding closer than before. Varian swallowed and pushed his feet harder into the ground. He picked up speed, and the voices started to become a little more distant. _I’m going to make it!_ He peered ahead of the path and skidded to a halt as he came upon a rock wall. He looked up at, wondering he could scale it before they get here. He turned around as the voices got closer, heavily panting. He glanced back at the wall. _No time._ He clutched the stone, turned and ran alongside the wall. _There’s got to be another way up. Or maybe around._

The feet of the men after him pounded closer. He needs to find a way to throw them off. Varian looked up ahead and spotted the end of this wall. _There._ With a small grin, he reached the corner and rounded it. His grin widened as he went into- Varian skidded to a halt. This isn’t a path. It’s a dead end. The rock wall turned into a concave, towering high and hanging over his head. Varian backed up and turned to run back out when he nearly ran into one of the men chasing him, nearly dropping the stone. The man grinned at him as the young alchemist backed away. More of the men appeared from around the corner and blocked the exit out of the concave. Varian gripped the stone with both his hands and backed away, stopping when his back hit the rock. 

“You’re certainly making this more trouble than it’s worth.” 

Varian swallowed as a well-dressed man pushed his way through the others. 

“It’s one of my specialities,” Varian shot back. The Duke stopped in front of his goons and clasped his hands behind his back, smirking. 

“How about we make a deal?”

Varian narrowed his eyes. “Yeah? What sort of deal?”

The Duke’s smirk widened a bit. “You give me that stone, and we put this whole thing behind us. Or, I pry it out of your cold, dead hands.”

Varian’s stomach twisted. He knew he couldn’t give it to this man. The Duke is dangerous, for one, and he had found out the stone is dangerous as well. It’s incredibly unstable that if one false move is made, the stone would give off a catastrophic shockwave-like pulse. Whatever the Duke had in mind for the stone, it can’t be good.

“What do you plan to do with the stone?” Varian asked, attempting to stall him.

“That is none of your business,” the Duke replied, “but if you must know, I’m going to use to make my newfound abilities permanent.” He lifted a hand and formed snow in his hands. Varian blinked in surprise. _He wants to permanently have ice powers?_ Varian held the stone a little closer to himself. 

“Oh, don’t be like that. My offer still stands. You can give it to me and walk away, or you could pointlessly die.” _Either way, he gets the stone._ Varian stared down at the stone, carefully rubbing his thumbs over its ridged surface. Only one of these is made every hundred years. However the stone is going to be used, Varian feared he’ll never get his hands on it again.

“What’s it going to be, boy?”

Is it worth dying over?

Varian sighed heavily. “Alright. You can have it.” 

He looked back up at the Duke, whose smile had returned to his face. He signalled one of his men to go to retrieve the stone. Varian held it out, and the goon snatched it from his hand, heading back to his boss and handing it to him. The Duke held the stone up to his eye level and observed.

“Beautiful. Truly nature’s work of art.”

Varian chewed the inside of his cheek. “Ok, you have it now. Let me go.”

The Duke glanced at him with his steely grey eyes. “And let you go squealing to the princess? I don’t think so.”

Varian’s stomach tied itself, and his heart started to pound. “W-what?”

“If you go tell Princess Rapunzel what has just occurred, no doubt she’ll be knocking down my door and ruining my plans before I even set them in motion. I simply cannot let that happen. So..” Varian stepped back a bit into the rock wall once more as the Duke turned toward him. “I’ll have to tie up a loose end.”

The Duke shot his hand out, and a large white ball flew toward Varian. It hit him square in the chest before he could react, causing him to cry out and fall to his knees. He pushed himself back to his feet, gripping his chest which had become rather cold.

“W-what did you do to me?”

“I froze your heart. In a few seconds, you’ll be nothing but ice.”

Varian began to shiver as the cold spread through his body. The sound of crinkling caught his attention, and he looked at his right hand, which had started growing ice crystals on his glove. He yanked the glove off and stared in horror as he watched his fingers be engulfed in crystals and turning his fingertips purple. He looked down at his chest and saw ice form over his chest. Terrified, he lifted his head to stared at the Duke, who had a vicious grin on his face.

“I’m sorry you won’t be able to see me when I finally get what I deserve, but you did this to yourself.”

Tears fell down and froze to Varian’s face. “No...” 

He managed to take a step forward before not being able to move them again. He held his ungloved hand close to him, as though attempting to keep it warm. He dropped the glove he had pulled off. He could feel the ice spreading its way down to his feet and up his shoulders and neck. He can no longer breathe. Varian extended out his arm as though asking for help from the enemy and opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Ice quickly made its way up his arm and freezing it in place. Cold crawled up his jaw and the back of his head, and the last thing he saw was his fingers curling as the ice froze his wrist.

The Duke stood there as the ice froze the boy’s hand and curled fingers. The stone burned in his hand as he gazed upon the young alchemist’s terrified expression, forever frozen in place. With a _hmph_ , he turned away. 

“Let’s go. We’re done here.”


End file.
